Fate/stay night: Chilling Winter Chapter Six: Caster
The church in Fuyuki City was a large mass located on the tallest hill in town, towering so steep the tip couldn’t be seen by the naked eye. The church was on the edge of the city limits, buildings and houses not visible for seemingly miles. Clouds darkened the sky overhead, getting less and less prevalent the further they get from the church, strangely. The inside was barely lit, save for a few dim candles here and there. A silhouetted figure made its way down the hallways, holding a short, brown torch lit with a large, orange flame, which illuminated a small portion of the corridors; as it continued, different sections became visible, and then ceased to be visible again. Every room was so dank and quiet that the fingers footsteps could be heard echoing for seemingly miles. The person wore a long, relatively thin, black cloak, with a hood covering its face; no part of its body could be seen, except for its left hand gripping the torch. The person finally reached a room, which had seemingly hundreds of chairs, and an enormous stage at the front with a large pedestal on it. This area was also much better lit than the hallways leading here, so the mysterious person blew out the torch, and set it on a nearby seat, after which flipping off the hood, revealing her gender as female, with long, flowing, purple hair, purple eyes, purple eye lashes, and purple lipstick. Her hands slipped ever so slightly out of her cloak, revealing purple nail polish, too. This woman smiled, and then released a satisfied sigh, walking up to the stage. “Kirei.” She said gentle. “Show yourself, I know you’re here.” For a moment, she got no reply. Then, another person stepped out of the shadows to her left. He was a tall man, with short, spiked, black hair, adorned a black uniform that a priest would wear. He had a blank face, making reading his thoughts impossible. “I told you not to call me buy name here.” He responded in a deep voice. Every word he said echoed throughout the room for several seconds. “What if the enemy were to spy on us?” She looked very amused at this. “Common, Kirei, you worry too much. You know normal Servants can’t set foot inside the Church.” “Caster, you’re surprisingly naive.” He rebutted. “Even if the Servants can’t, the Masters can.” “And if they try, my magic barrier will put an end to it.” “She explained. “No Master will enter unelss they loose the war, and no Servant will enter period. I assure you.” “Let’s hope that confidence of yours hasn’t crossed the line to arrogance, Caster.” “The war has begun.” Caster told him, ignoring his previous statement. “All seven Servants have been summoned I can sense it. “I know. I could see the wreckage all across Fuyuki City.” He replied. “Have you completed your end of the mission?” She asked. “Of course.” Kirei confirmed. She’s in the other room.” Kirei led Caster to a room connected to the stage; the door was blocked by several chains that took three keys to unlock. They entered, Kirei slamming the door behind them. This room was less lit than the previous room, but more lit than the hallways that came before. It looked like some sort of torture chamber, with axes, saws, and daggers littering the walls, and chains dangling off the ceiling. Several cots spread out to strap victims to on the farthest end from the door a person was tied up with rope that was bolted to the wall, a woman, with neck length, maroon hair, and black eyes. Her clothes were ripped and tattered, and she had cuts, scrapes, and scratches and bruises all over her face and hands, her fingernails all ripped out heaving her fingers themselves in a bloody mess. Her left hand was noticeably missing, a bloody stump remaining, so the rope on that end had to be messily tied around the stump, looking like it would come loose at any moment. “This is Bazett.” He said to Caster, pointing at the prisoner. “So, this is the Master of Lancer.” “Not anymore.” He corrected. “After I beat her, I confiscated her command seals, and took Lancer for myself. She is all yours now.” He finished, stepping back all the way to the door. “Of course.” Caster exclaimed, showing a sinnisterr grin. She reached down and grabbed hold of Bazett’s chin wtih her thumb and index finger, lifting it up to take a close look at her black, fearful eyes, her pale, pattered face, and the part frighteneed and part angry expression she was giving off. As Bazett grit her teeth in disgust, a few of them missing, Caster grinned in a musement. “Don’t be so mad, dear.” Caster said in a fake sympahtetic tone. “you should be happy. You’re about to become the final piece to my plan.” Bazett spit in her face. Caster wipped it off, licked her lips, and then slappwed bazett in the face, although she didn’t appear pissed at all based on her expression. “Go to hell, bitcvh!” Bazett hissed with venom. Her voice sounded weak, and she bravely managed to get those words out. “Gladly.” Caster responded. “But not until the mission is over, hun.” Caster stood up and gazed at Kirei. Understanding without words, he walked behind Bazett, easily evading her lashing out, kicking , and screaming, and grabbed a small brown box on the floor. He opened it and pulled out Bazett’s missing left hand, dried blood covering much of it, and tinted a dark blue due to lack of oxygen and blood flow. Caster’s eyes shifted slightly at the sight of the hand. “Mind explaining where the command seals went, Kirei?” She said. “I apologize Caster, but time was short, so I opted to take Lancer for my own. “That is unexceptable!” She blurted out. Calming down a tiny bit, she continued, “How did you even pull it off? I know you’re a skilled mage and all, but even you, the fifth greatest Mage in the world, should have your limits. You are, after all, still a modern mage.” “I had some.....assistance. From an old friend, you see.” He explained. “The only friend of yours I know about you killed ten years ago.” “Common now, Caster. Don’t you think I have other friends?” He asked. “No.” She said matter-of-fact. Kirei laughed, and Caster just looked annoyed, releasing a deep, almost exhausted sigh. “Not that it matters.” She exclaimed. “Once I have Assassin, everything will be perfect.” “Assassin?” Bazett chimed in her speech a little bit more stable now. “B-But.....Matou already summoned Assassin!” Caster then gave her full, undivided attention to Bazett, retaking her cocky, malicious smile that even managed to send shivers down Kirei’s spine. “Just because one Assassin has already entered the war, doesn’t mean a second can’t.” “That’s--impossible.” Bazett muttered in horrified disbelief. “Oh, naize child.” She said, bending down and grabbing her chin just like before. “Nothing is impossible for Maeda.” Bazett remained tied to the wall, frightened, as Caster stood back a little, reached out, palm open toward Bazett’s face, and muttered some words under her breath, which neither Kirei nor Bazett could understand at all. After ten seconds, a magic aura began to radiate from her hand, engulfing Bazett, causing her extreme pain as she screamed in bloody agony. This lasted for thirty seconds, after which Caster lowered her hand, reached into her cloak, and pulled out a katana with a blue diamond hilt and stabbed it through Bazett’s chest. Bazett’s entire body began to glow with a red light, her flesh hardening and cracking and chipping away, the sword being absorbed inside of her, slowly, Caster having to leap far back as a means to avoid the blast that followed. Bursting through her chest was a hand, followed by another. Caster grabbed one of them and helped pull him out, every inch he traveled doing more extensive damage to Bazett, until she was dead before he was even half way on the outside. As Caster aided him, she could see three command seals show upon the back of the same hand she used to help him with. When he was completely free, Bazett lay in a bloody mess on the floor, her entire body completely unrecognizable; or rather, what was left of her body, that is. Caster’s summon lifted to his feet, his boy dripping with blood and gore, his hair so drenched his hair color couldn’t be seen at all. He was shirtless, sporting a six pack abs, and had a Katana at his feet, presumably the same Katana that Caster used to help summon him. “Where am I?” He said in a relatively light and gentle tone, yet very confused and exhausted, as well as stuttering out the words, so it took him awhile to finish that statement. Caster answered with no hesitation at all. “You have been summoned to the Fifth Holy Grail War. You are Assassin, correct?” “Y-Yes.” He replied solemnly. “Good. I’m your Master, Caster.” She said, satisfied. “Wait.” Assassin was more composed now, standing perfectly straight up, at least six feet nine inches tall. “While I was transported here I was informed about the rules of the war. How are you, a Caster Class Servant, serving as a Master?” “There is nothing I can’t do with Rule Breaker.” “Rule Breaker?” He repeated, puzzled. “I’ll fill you in latter.” She promised. She pointed to Kirei, who had remained silent through this whole process. “That is my assistant for the war, Kirei Kotomine. You’ll meet his Servant, Lancer, another time.” Kirei approached, slowly at first. Assassin looked at him, and Kirei gazed into his eyes, after which feeling more safe and walking up to him. “Come with me, Assassin, we have a large shower on the other end of the church.” He explained. “We need to get you ready to fight.” “assassin picked up his sword, the blood partially dried by now. He shook it three times in a row, the rest of the wet blood dripping and splattering off, although the dried blood mostly remained, only flaking off a tiny bit. His right hand grazed his right side, then his left side, until he realized he was missing something. “Where’s my sheath?” He asked with concern. “My apologies.” Caster said with sincerity. “During my recent visit to Japan, I was only able to locate your sword, not your sheath.” “That’s fine.” Assassin responded with slight reluctance. “The sheath is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things--I need my sword.” “This way, then.” Kirei lead Caster and Assassin respectively out of this room, leaving Bazett’s splattered corps behind. The three of them made the lengthy trek across the church, entering and exiting a total of ten rooms along the way, which excluded the hallways and corridors they had to travel to get to each new room. The first was the room they were in previously, the Alter, which was the room the church used for prayer and offerings. The second was the primary entrance of the Church, possessing many photo depictions on the walls of the different Gods worshiped in the Shinto religion. Other than that they reached six different sleeping quarters, giving Assassin the appearance of the strangest Church ever, even compared to ones from his time, the next room being a commons hall with tables adorned in elegant table clothes and four chairs at each one. Their final destination looked like no room you’d never find in a church. A n enormous training hall, surrounded by gray stone walls on all sides and up above, the floor made of pure concrete. The floor, however, could only barely be seen on the edges, because the majority was covered up by many soft, red battle mats used for semi-safe combat training. The mats were littered with punching bags, and differently shaped punching bags were dangling from the ceiling from thick, brown ropes. The walls held many shelves holding daggers, bow staffs, wooden swords, and real Japanese swords of all types, such as Katanas, Tantos, Nodachis, Chokutos, among many others. On the floor, scattered aimlessly in a mess, were brown boxes, of varying sizes. Some were folded closed, but the open ones had black and red padded punching gloves and mouth pieces to protect a combatant’s hands and teeth. An open closet revealed white, red, and black martial arts uniforms; each one included a thick, gritted button up top, and a thick bottom with a gritted rim. “The summoning has concluded?” A stoic, almost emotionless voice sounded off, walking in from the last door in this room; the closet was on the left wall, and this final door was parallel to the closet, on the right wall. “Souichirou!” Caster’s voice, which was normally very stoic and uncaring, seemed relatively excited all of a sudden, as she ran over to the source of the voice. He was a very tall man, must have been at least seven feet high, with short, black, spiky hair, similar to Kirei except shorter, and was adorned in a black suite and black tie, covered by a gray vest and black dress pants underneath of all that, brown shoes barely visible on his feet. “Why is he covered in blood, Caster?” Souichirou questioned, grabbing hold of her rougholy by the shoulders. “The special summoning I had to do was kind of.....messy, let’s just say.” Her voice was mostly back to normal now. “Whatever.” He said, shrugging it off. “Assassin stepped forward. “So, Souichirou, are you.....my Master’s, um, Master?” “That is correct.” He confirmed matter-of-fact. “And that means that you will address me as Master as well, understand?” “As you wish-Master.” He said, the last word in a sarcastic tone, bowing his head, right hand on h is stomach, left hand on his back; since his head was down, nobody could see a smirk plastered on his face. Assassin rose, and Caster pointed to the room that Souichirou walked out of. “The shower is that way. Hurry, we have much to do.” Assassin went to the shower and shut the door behind him, Souichirou scowling in his wake. “I don’t like his attitude, Caster.” He stated with scorn. “Relax, Souichirou.” She responded. “He’s just Assassin. Even if he were to turn, he poses no threat, love. Especially to me.” “Your two fatal flaws.” Kirei chimed in, “are your arrogance and your knack to underestimate the opposition.” “Caster frowned at Kirei, but Souichirou stepped inf ront of them to intervene. “I agree. You need tobe careful, Caster.” This act of the one she loved turned her frown to a partial smile. “Souichirou.” Kirei said, changing the subject. “Have you acquired Kojiro’s Hakama and Kimono like you were supposed to?” “Indeed.” He confirmed. “I set them by the shower. He can’t miss them. I also took the liberty of purchasing a sheath, because I knew he didn’t have one.” “That’s my Souichirou, always thinking ahead.” Caster said in a rather flirtatious tone; Souichirou remained stone faced despite this. Their conversation was interrupted when the bathroom door swung open, a blinding cloud of steam exiting, followed by Assassin, fully dressed, but still slightly wet on his hands and face, the only visible parts of his skin, his hair soaked, water dripping off of it behind him. Shaking his head rapidly, Assassin put his hair up in a long ponytail leaving a few strands loose to dangle on the sides of and in between his eyes. Down by his left side was a purple sheath, most likely holstering his Katana. “Now then, Master.” Assassin said, facing Caster, the sarcastic inflection that was in his voice previously gone now, leaving behind a slight seriousness. “What’s my first mission?” “My my, aren’t you imn a mighty hurry for action?” Caster responded humorously; Assassin grinned, confirming this. Souichirou explained. “We need ou to help Lancer break into Tohsaka Mansion and steal an artifact very important to our plans.” “I keep hearing about this ‘Lancer’ but have yet to actually see him.” “Servants aren’t allowed to enter the Church.” Kirei told him. “What about us?” Assassin questioned, speaking with Kirei, but gazing at Caster in order to point out whom else he was referencing. “My Noble Phantasm.” She said. “It’s called Rule Breaker, and it allows me to break the rules of the Holy Grail War, to a certain extent.” Her tone made her sound very proud of her special power. “I can use it to allow myself and my Servant, you, passed the magic barriers surrounding the church. Sadly, the effect won’t work on Lancer, however, because he isn’t my Servant.” Assassin had a sparkle of confusion in his eyes, but kept a straight, unmovable face, as if he understood. “What is this artifact you want us to find anyways?” He inquired. “That’s on a need to know basis, and you aren’t in.” Souichirou hissed. Kirei spoke. “Let’s just say, it’s one of the most powerful magical artifacts ever created, and unfortunately, it’s in the hands of Rin Tohsaka right now. With it in our possession, our victory in the war is all but assured.” “How do I find it?” He replied. You don’t.” Caster responded. “Lancer does. A ll you need to do is help him get in, and he’ll do the rest.” “Meet him at this location, and he’ll finish filling you in.” Kirei handed Assassin a miniature slip of paper with text so tiny that he had to squint his eyes very hard in order to be able to read it. “What about you guys?” Assassin asked. “We’ll stay here and keep an eye on the church, wait for defeated Masters to arrive. “Fine. I’ll take care of this assignment then. Shouldn’t be too hard.” He shrugged, unsheathed his sword, and made a circular motion with it in front of himself. After ten seconds he was enveloped in a white light, ten seconds more and he disappeared, and ten seconds more till the light was gone, Assassin no where to be found. “Things are going more smoothly than expected.” Caster blurted out, breaking the silence that existed for a few moments. “Indeed.” Kirei agreed. “Guess that means we don’t need him anymore.” Kirei coated his left hand in red energy, placed his palm on the ground directly beneath himself, and after a few seconds a secret hatch, hidden by magic, appears. It was made of splinted red, brown wood, greatly contrasting with the red of the church, and a golden handle attached to it. Kirei lifted it open, revealing a man down below in a hole much smaller than a person should ever be put in, arms tied behind his back and feet tight together with thick, brown rope, mouth sealed shut with gray duck tape. Kirei reached inside and ripped the duck tape off of his face. This man, clearly middle aged, released an ear curdling scream so loud Kirei, Caster, and Souichirou winced at the pitch. He had light brown, slicked back hair, wrinkles on his face and hands, the only visible parts of his flesh and heavy-looking bags under his eyes darkened from wryness. “Dammit, Kirei.” The man protested. His speech was but a stutter at first, but he slowly regained vocal consistency. “This is unthinkable!” “high priest.” Kirei said with a sinister looking smile on his face. “We no longer need you.” “What on earth?” He responded in befuddlement. “The situation has changed.” The priest finally noticed both Caster and Souichirou, standing side by side, as the former spoke. “Keeping you alive is no longer worth the effort, hold man.” The priest’s face turned to that of pure horror as he peered up at Caster, her face mostly concealed by the hood of her cloak. “What are you going to do to me?” Caster just grinned mischievously, not moving a bone or muscle in her body s mana spikes began to form behind her, coated in a dark purple coloration in some areas and a light purple coloration in other areas. Each one must have been at least three feet long. “Common, don’t do this!” He pleaded in vain, beginning to sweat profusely with frightened nervousness. “I promise I won’t tell, so please don’t kill me!” Caster said nothing. The spikes gradually inched closer, the priest shrieking in shock. “Please, I beg of you!” He shouted. “I can help you!” The spikes ceased, still levitating in the air, slowly bobbing up and down repeatedly as Caster smirked, amused as this statement. She threw her head back and released a loud, high-pitched laugh, which echoed viciously through the room they were in, and lasted for about fifteen seconds. When she stopped, she looked back at him again, tears beginning to well up in her eyes from all of the laughter. “Excuse me, but what exactly could you, a priest, do to assist us with our schemes?” She retorted. “I have an ‘in’ with the Mage’s association.” He explained, occasionally stumbling over his words due to how speedily he was speaking. “I can work on the inside to help keep them off our trail. After all, they’re bound to find out the truth eventually otherwise.” This notion caused all three of them to ponder thoughtfully for a couple of minutes. Souichirou was the first to break the silence. “Just kill him already. He’s just stalling for time.” The spikes began to move, but Kirei stood in front of Caster and they halted again. “Hold it.” He declared, after which turning around and observing the priest. “Let’s allow him to explain himself. What kind of influence do you possess?” A glimmer of hope somehow managed to locate his e yes. “My brother sits on the Mage’s board that controls the Mage’s ASsocation. He has the second most amount of i9nfluence on the board, second only to the Great Mage himself, and he and I have always gotten along.” The pacing of his speech was completely erratic to match his nervous and distressed demenour. “It isn’t uncommon for brother to listen to my council, considering that I am the elder. This could allow me to prevent your plot from being discovered.” “Do you take us for fools?” kirei said harshly. “How are we to know you won’t betray us?” “I have a method to solve that issue.” Caster interluded. “I can cast a spell on him which will allow me to know if he decides to turn on us. If he does, I can kill him right away.” The spikes she formed began to dissipate, leaving only stray magical energy in its wake, which also vanished before too long. “Don’t tell me you’re actually considering this, Caster.” Souichirou protested with little emotion in his voice. “I don’t see why not.” She said matter-of-fact. “My countermeasure is fool proof. And we could use a mole on the inside, especially if Assassin and Lancer should happen to fail their mission.” Kirei stepped out of the way, releasing a solemn sigh. “Whatever, you’re the boss. Just remember, his actions are our responsibility, Caster.” He told her. “No, Kirei, his actions will be his own responsibility.” She corrected him. “and he will suffer dearly if he double crosses us.” Next Chapter Previous Chapter Category:Stories Category:Chapters Category:Fate/stay night: Chilling Winter Chapters